Drones

ICE Protests Highlight Contra Costa County Sheriff Drone Program

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Reprinted from Center for Human Rights and Privacy 

 

Many protesters observed the use of multiple drones at the West Contra Costa County Detention Center on June 30, 2018, during a protest against ICE and its practice of family separation. Journalist Darwin BondGraham wrote about this in an East Bay Express article on July 3, 2018. Documents released in response to a public records request indicated that the drone was also flown over the June 26, 2018, protest at the same facility.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s drone (or unmanned aerial vehicle/system) program was started in 2016. The agency purchased its first drone on September 7, 2016, a DJI Phantom 4, from Fry’s Electronics on Willow Pass Road for $1,685.14. The drone was returned and exchanged for the same model on September 13, 2016.

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Risk Assessment

114 Civil Rights Groups on Pre-Trial Risk Assessment

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114 civil and human rights groups, including Oakland Privacy, joined together to urge that pre-trial detention including risk assessment or predictive software and electronic shackles, be used as infrequently as possible.

Pretrial “risk assessment” instruments – although they may seem objective or neutral – threaten to further intensify unwarranted discrepancies in the justice system and to provide a misleading and undeserved imprimatur of impartiality for an institution that desperately needs fundamental change.

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Public Records

Aaron Swartz Day Tutorial: How To Cut And Paste Your Way To A Surveillance Policy Framework

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The Aaron Swartz Day Police Surveillance Project  aims to empower professional journalists and “citizen journalists,” so they can quickly and easily file a large set of public records requests to the Police and Sheriff Departments of a given city.

The set of public records requests templates is integrated with the Muckrock platform and you you can use them to get a comprehensive snapshot of how they are watching you in any city or county in California.

In about 90 minutes

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Police Militarization, UASI

Here There And Everywhere

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Except in Berkeley, apparently. The once locus of progressivism with a young Our Revolution-endorsed mayor has to watch that mayor cave to police union pressure and continue tacit support of Alameda County’s Trump-loving sheriff and his Homeland Security-funded war games by a one vote margin. Yet another completely full Council hearing room for naught.